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Topic: Letters Sent to Romenesko
Date/Time: 4/17/2007 4:07:44 PM
Title: Ex-AAJA member questions AAJA advisory
Posted By: Jim Romenesko
 
From CHRISTINE SUH: When the advisory below reached my inbox, sadly I wasn't surprised, but I was appalled and am passing it along to Poynter in hopes that your organization will challenge the AAJA's stance or at least post the advisory on your web site for others to comment on. That an association of journalists would advocate keeping racial identifiers out of the story about the Viriginia Tech massacre clearly demonstrates the AAJA's misguided leadership.

I am a former member of the association (and a Korean American) who decided not to renew because of releases such as this one. I hope members out there are as perplexed as I am by the advisory, but the fact that the group's leadership thought to promote such a poor practice tells me there are members out there who agree that ignoring the identity of the shooter would be acceptable in this story.
....

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Advisory: Coverage on Virginia Tech Shooting Incident

SAN FRANCISCO (April 16, 2007) -- Like the rest of the nation, we at the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) are stunned at the news of today's shooting at Virginia Tech. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families and friends as they cope with this horrific incident.

As coverage of the Virginia Tech shooting continues to unfold, AAJA urges all media to avoid using racial identifiers unless there is a compelling or germane reason. There is no evidence at this early point that the race or ethnicity of the suspected gunman has anything to do with the incident, and to include such mention serves only to unfairly portray an entire people.

The effect of mentioning race can be powerfully harmful. It can subject people to unfair treatment based simply on skin color and heritage.

We further remind members of the media that the standards of news reporting should be universal and applied equally no matter the platform or medium, including blogs.

We at AAJA, representing approximately 2,000 reporters, editors, photographers and executives in the industry, encourage journalists to refer to style and reference books, both within their own shop as well as AAJA's at http://www.aaja.org/resources/apa_handbook/.

We also invite those with concerns or questions to contact AAJA as a resource for issues of fair and accurate coverage of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. [Permalink]

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